English Cricket Blog

Showering praises on his most impressive young gun Hardik Pandya, Virat Kohli says that the batting of the Baroda right hander in the first innings at Kandy pushed the hosts on the back foot.

According to Virat, after the kind of position Sri Lanka found itself in at stumps on Day 1 and then after getting early wickets in the first hour of day 2 as well, they would definitely not have thought that India would drag the score close to 500.

But, the spanking that they received from Hardik just ahead of the lunch on Day 2, their thought process would have suddenly gone negative and that negative mind-set took them further down from there.

Some of the former Indian players before the series were not sure about Hardik’s credentials as a test player and had questioned if he had different gears in his batting.

The 34-year old bowler played Tests against England in the 2005 Ashes, playing three Tests in his career. He is renowned for his exploits for Twnety20 in recent season.

Injuries are amongst the reasons he is retiring from the game, having suffered a spate of different injuries in his career. A chronic elbow problem has finally forced him out of the game.

“I wanted to play a couple of more years. The elbow has pretty much gone off a cliff now, it’s done and dusted.

“I’m 34 years old and I suppose when you’re not contributing on the field as much as you’d like to, it’s time to finish up. The game’s getting quicker and better and I’m getting slower and a bit older,” the player explained.

The India-Australia test series is getting ugly by the day as the two teams are not leaving any opportunity to make fun of each other, sometimes even forgetting the moral values while doing so.

Yesterday, when Virat Kohli was batting in the post lunch session, a couple of the Aussie fielders were gesturing like they had severe pain in their shoulders.

The reason behind those gestures was that Virat had been off the field for a good one and a half days citing a shoulder injury when the going was tough for India with the ball on a flat deck.

But, when it came to batting, he walked in second down. So, the Aussies probably suspected that he was not as severely injured as he gave the impression and he just used the injury as an excuse to remain in the comfort of the change room.

Mitchell Johnson, who was a part of the Australian camp till 2015 and still remains close to many of the Kangaroo players, even wrote on social media yesterday that he had suspicion about the extent of Virat’s injury.

Two seasons so far, has seen the Adelaide Strikers finish in the semi-finalist position. However, it seems they can achieve the feat of lifting the Big Bash Trophy this time around.

Both at home and away in BBL05, the Strikers were in position to showcase a quite strong performance, which without, they would have to take some more beating.

The last season had seen them with a rare poor performance in a game that mattered the most, as they went on to lose the match to the final winners, Sydney Thunder in the semifinal of the BBL05.

So far, from the last summer, the Strikers have made no less than five changes to their squad. Chris Jordan, England’s Paceman and Ben Dunk, former Hurricanes batsman are the big additions made by the club for this season.

However, the loss of Adil Rashid, England’s wicket taker, who is currently on active duty for his country, could prove costly for the team.

Pakistan lost to Bangladesh in the national Stadium in Dhaka last night and was knocked out of the Asia Cup.

It was Pakistan’s second loss in the tournament as they had been toppled by India as well in their first game.

Now, they have to play Sri Lanka on Friday which will be a dead rubber.

The Pakistani team had come into the Asia Cup on the back of the Pakistan Super League and thus, had been considered as a strong contender, but, it was the same old story of irresponsible batting and lethargic fielding from them.

The games against India and Bangladesh which they lost, they just didn’t put enough runs on the board.

83 and 129 are not the scores which give you the guarantee of winning matches especially when you have a fielding as inefficient and inconsistent as Pakistan’s is.
Pakistan’s selections have been a bit questionable too. They have played Khurram Manzoor three games in a row despite the fact that he is looking all out of sorts.

They could have been better off playing an extra bowler in the form of Wahab Riaz in the Bangladesh game and getting an all rounder, maybe Anwar Ali slightly up the batting order.

Riaz was dropped after just an off day against India which was bizarre because he has been Pakistan’s most successful bowler lately and on pitches with a little seam movement, he can make big impact.